irrational dangerous dog behavior

Question
I recently rescued a 21 month old English Mastiff from an interim owner.  She is pregnant with her second litter (way too young) and originally came from a puppy mill, with 50 mastiffs!!  She is terrified and insecure.  She won't eat the top quality dog food I provide (Iams smart puppy at $1.00 per lb.) and climbs on the counters chewing weird things like a sealed can of soup, box of salt and frozen spagetti she somehow took from the freezer. She can be outside for hours but waits until I let her in to pee and poop on the carpet.  The most bizarre behavior is that she has killed and eaten 2 precious kittens!  The first time I was upset and perplexed called the vet  and tried to think of some rationale. None came to mind.  Reluctently I gave her the benefit of the doubt that perhaps something else killed the kitten and she just got a hold of it after the fact, though it seemed like a fresh kill. Could she not tell domestic animals from wild as in hunting rabbits, though I don't know Mastiffs to be hunters.  We own 3 top quality English Mastiffs and they play with our french bulldog puppies and are gentle giants. Then a neighbor let a kitten out and it climbed through my fence and we found her having freshly killed it and eating it too!!  Now we are scared to death she will eat her own puppies.  The lady we got her from said she had 12 pouppies the first time and whelped them alone in her kennel and raised them all on her own.  I find that difficult to believe knowing all the pains we take with an experienced mom and  litter and still occassionally lose one.  We thought we could insure a safe delivery and a c-section if she needed one and then re-home her puppies and have her spayed and placed with a good family.  Anyone who breeds a dog at that tender age and twice yet and lets puppies alone to  struggle and suffer should not own a dog.  Do you have any idea what could promote that bizarre behavior?  She was absolutely terrified when we got her and we have been making strides in trust and confidence but we are really shocked and don't know what to do. That lady expects us to pay her $3,000.00 out of puppy proceeds and we don't even know if they are purebred, will live or not, or worse yet be eaten!  We are afraid to force her to take her back and afraid to keep her and be devastated if she kills her little ones.  Do you or any of your colleagues have ANY ideas at all?  Thank you PS  I know someone with a 12 year old grandson with Prayter Willies or (however you spell it) syndrome.  Could that be a possibility?  According to her pedigree if that is acurate she was not inbred.  Could she be brain damaged? Lacking something?  Angry?

Answer
Hi Pamela,

It sounds like you really have your hands full. You're right, she is way too young to be having a litter of puppies, let alone her second litter.

The behaviour you are describing is not something you can take risks with. Eating random food is dangerous, and her behaviour is really extreme. You could consider retraining her, from the start, as if she was a puppy. She is, actually, at 21 months, still technically a puppy, and after all she has been through, I can sure see she would need some extra care.

That would mean that unless she is directly supervised, she would be crated, and not a danger to herself, or others - and she would be getting good training in what is acceptable and what is not. You could do this until the puppies are born, and then just watch them around the clock.
It's a lot of work.

But in the mean time, you need to keep her, and other animals safe.

It is good that she is making strides in trust. That is very encouraging.

I am not sure why the lady would expect you to pay - you rescued the dog, right? That's something you should talk about with an attorney.

For now, your plan to keep her safe and place the puppies and then rehome her really does sound like a good one. I understand why you wouldn't want to give her back, and I think I'd probably keep her and work with her as best I could.

Hope this helps!